Don’t blame the St. John rental companies
Whatever the motivation behind deciding to enforce the ban on St. Thomas rental vehicles, if there was one, St. John rental agencies will tell you they couldn’t have handled all that extra business.
That same law limits the number of vehicles they can rent.
And for St. John rental companies, that is the real problem that needs fixing.
“St. John has had a quota of 625 rental vehicles for the past 20 years,” says Lonnie Willis at St. John Rentals. “No St. John car company has been able to expand its fleet and, in spite of a huge growth of villas, we cannot fill rental demand during peak times.”
Ironically, the intent of the quota system was to protect individual island companies, but it actually works against them on St. John, limiting their ability to compete with St. Thomas companies.
“During a busy week, we are talking about 600 to 700 visitors who are renting their vehicles on St. Thomas right now,” says Courtesy Car Rental’s Greg Edward.
“I understand that some people prefer to rent on St. Thomas, but what we are asking for is for the quota to be lifted so we can more fairly compete.”
What do you guys think? You’re the customer.
April 24th, 2012 04:53
It is time for a productive public transportation system. You can’t just increase the the rental cars quota until you reach two or three thousand, the roads can’t support it and neither can our parking lots. Increasing the quota would make the agencies on island compete for business and drop pricing allowing more visitors to rent cars for more days. It sounds good but isn’t.
April 24th, 2012 05:41
The quota is outdated but don’t update it, eliminate it!
April 24th, 2012 06:18
I prefer to rent on STT. I’m very independant & like to go as I please & it’s much easier w/a child, stroller & car seat…You get in the rental & go. Once at the villa we can settle in & do some quick shopping to get us started. I don’t see why people cannot have the option. This is America isn’t it?
April 24th, 2012 07:07
I didn’t know about the quota, and while I understand the reasons for it, it flies in the face of the abundance of relatively new advertising for the USVI. “Come here…just don’t hope to have a means of transportation”. If people could have run out of cars to rent AND not be able to bring them over, what were people out in Coral Bay to do? I can’t imagine what it would cost to get a cab out there…and who knows if one would ever come get you, and as Josh indicated, the public transit system is severely lacking. Something had to give.
April 24th, 2012 08:28
The quota is only part of what needs to be fixed. Where do you park all the extra cars? How do you put fuel in them with only one gas station on Island? With two unequal, equal sides of St. John, it seems that Coral Bay gets slighted when it comes to transportation. JMHO. 2 cents worth…:)
-Bert
April 24th, 2012 08:50
Wow what a firestorm. I can see both points of view. Limiting the number of cars on the island makes sense as to congestion and pollution, however, supply needs to meet demand and the direction that seems to be heading towards does not bode well for the “laid back” island of STJ. I know you cannot stop progress but at some point the absolute beauty and serenity of STJ has to be protected beyond the national park or like it or not STJ will become a mini STT and I don’t think anyone wants to see that.
April 24th, 2012 08:56
Our decision is “driven” by economics and convenience: It is cheaper to rent on STT, buy groceries on STT, and take the car ferry. It is WAY more convenient to get my car at the airport. Sure, raise the quota so more people can rent on St. John, but why would they unless the passenger ferry and food prices are also equal?
April 24th, 2012 09:08
This is ridiculous, I personally rent on St John and will continue to do so, but I totally understand why some people prefer the St Thomas rental. People with children, as the previous poster said, I can not imagine lugging baby needs to a taxi, then ferry, then car, and finally arriving at the villa, ugh! Or people with disabilities, or even people that prefer yo shop at Costuless or Kmart! We do not eat at the villa very much so stocking at Starfish or Dolphin is not a big deal, but not everyone vacations the way we do, with just 2 people and carry on bags. Seems to me if you vacation differently than me, you are now being penalized by making your travel days that much more difficult.
April 24th, 2012 09:17
I don’t think St. John infrastructure, i.e. roads/congestion, lack of gas stations, parking, and most importantly, the peace and serenity of St. John, can handle significantly more rental cars.
As someone else said, that would turn St. John into a mini-St. Thomas and I don’t think anyone wants to see that happen.
I think the limited rental cars on St. John should stay in place and add more reliable, public transit as an option for those who aren’t staying in Cruz Bay.
If you had reliable bus transportation where tourists could buy a week-pass to get around the island with ease, it could make money for the island, keep traffic congestion down, free up parking, etc…
April 24th, 2012 09:32
Limiting the number of STJ vehicles in the fleet won’t solve the congestion problem as long as unlimited rentals from STT are allowed.I rent on STT for some of the reasons cited, but do believe that the rental agencies on STJ should be allowed to try and compete by not having their fleet sizes artificially limited.
April 24th, 2012 12:06
Mr. Willis has a point. The higher demand for rental cars is a symptom of, in his words, “a huge growth of villas.” It might be too late to fix that problem.
April 24th, 2012 12:08
We travel 14 hours to get to St John for 2 weeks every June (8yrs now) – we spend (after airfare of ~$900pp, villa cost of $4800, and 4WD rental of $1000) about $300 per day on StJ (~$4200) for total of ~$12,000 for 2 weeks in paradise!!!
We also are one of those apparent villians that rent on StT and take the car barge, which gives us flexibility for our traveling around StJ (such as out to Coral Bay area, and all the beautiful beaches and great restuarants) w/o having to depend on taxis from both time, cost, and convenience standpoint. I will not depend on taxis, and public transportation to get around. Also, the vehicles on StJ are limited, costly, and many our trashed (1st hand experience). Plus, USVI wants us to take public taxis to get to RedHook, the ferry and then taxi to our villa after this long and expensive trip?
If the people of StJ and StT want us to spend our vacation dollars other places – go ahead and bite the hand that feeds you – you will reep what you sow. You may want to get your priorities straight. We have many other options.
April 24th, 2012 13:08
The solutions that make the most sense for tourists and the solutions that make sense of local businesses are at odds.
Imagine if we had a regular shuttle that ran from the Westin into town non-stop from 7am to 11pm. You would only need 1 22 passenger safari for this route and at most you’d be looking at a 15 minute wait at either point.
Imagine if we ran a public transport from the Mongoose Junction area all of the way down Northshore Road with stops at Caneel, Hawksnest, Trunk, Cinnamon and Francis. 7am-6pm. (6pm-11pm, it would continue but only as far as Caneel) You’d need about 3 safaris for this route (day) and only 1 at night.
Their would be some nominal fee but I’m sure no one would complain about $2pp.
Those two routes alone would cut down on the amount of traffic significantly. This would not address the villa renters but folks staying in either of the two major resorts or within walking distance to Cruz Bay would be able to forgo renting a vehicle and just use public transportation.
The taxi association would have the mother of all conniptions. Car rental companies would also be unhappy but since it seems their business is already throttled they wouldn’t feel it quite as much.
April 25th, 2012 07:20
Renting on St. Thomas is all about travel convenience. We land at the airport, we are picked up directly by the rental car company (we don’t have to hassle with taxis). We get a car and we are off! We can get some Udder Delight, hit some St. Thomas beaches, grab some lunch and then get the car ferry.
When we were there in the beginning of April, the beach parking lots were mobbed. On Francis for the first time since we have been visiting, cars were parking all the way to the entrance of Maho. (I know this was in part to the Manta Ray, which we were fortunate to see!) I cannot imagine that the island can handle any more vehicles, not to mention the fact that there is only one gas station in Cruz Bay to fuel all of these cars.
I understand and appreciate the desire to compete, but on a small island like St. John, I think the maximum capacity is close to being reached.
April 26th, 2012 15:12
I rent a car on STJ. The first reason is that I like giving the money to STJ merchants. The second is if we have a mechanical problem, flat tire or lock the keys in the car (done that twice), we are on our own if we rented from STT. They will not come out to help us.
As far as a quota goes, as long as the law is not enforced, ther really isn’t one. Everyone who wants a car generally has one. Whether they rent on STJ or bring it over from STT, they rent a car and drive it in STJ roads. That means that if the quota is finally dropped, there will not be significantly more cars than there are now.
April 26th, 2012 17:43
I like the quota. We always rent from St. John Rental because we love the convenient parking, but if they get too many more cars we won’t be able to find a spot there! Lol
April 27th, 2012 09:38
Like the STJ quota and no imports from STT? It may mean no available vehicles to rent during peak season and other busy holidays. It also will drive up the cost of rental on STJ- supply and demand- lots of people demanding a limited number of vehicles. Prices will go UP.
This could also affect the number of STT vacationers that in the past may have taken a day trip to STJ in their rented STT vehicle.
April 27th, 2012 18:10
Could we please stop with the idea that there is going to be more rental cars on the roads. If the St John rental car companies want their quota lifted, fine. It is not going to change a thing. If we are lucky it would lower rental prices because there would be too many cars. In a perfect world St John prices should be at least $200 cheaper per week because that is what it cost round trip to get a family of four from the airport to St John with normal luggage. We won’t even discuss what a hassle it is. Repeat visitors, our bread butter, must be allowed to rent on St Thomas for all the obvious reasons.This ability helps the residents by forcing local businesses to be more competitive. Starfish would be even more outrageous if Cost u less wasn’t around.
April 28th, 2012 15:14
I know we just had one heck of a time getting a rental on either island this past week think god for our villa agency had some pull and got us one with Cool Breeze (great company) even thou we perfer to rent on St Thomas and bring it over it wasn’t that bad just getting it on St John.